Jacksonville, NC asked in Criminal Law, Personal Injury, Civil Rights and Legal Malpractice for North Carolina

Q: Do I have a right to see a child abuse incident report now it's been dismissed in court?

I was arrested on suspicion of child abuse in 2015. Due to my kids dad being military, I was able to respond to some allegations through the FAP program.(which reads statements from the incident report)1 This is how I found out that some statements in the police incident report were incredibly inaccurate. (The police officer who wrote the report was not even present at the incident!) I requested a copy of the police report and was told that because of the nature, they could not release it to me. The case was dismissed as soon as the DA heard the facts, but I'm still very angry that all my family went through just because my sneaky daughter wanted to practice calling 911. (She was 4 at the time.) And want to see what else was lied about in the incident report. (I do know that it even identifies the events of the officer in the wrong gender! "He walked down the hallway" but it was a female officer!) Do I have a legal right to view the incident report now that the case has been dismissed?

1 Lawyer Answer
Peter N. Munsing
Peter N. Munsing
Answered

A: Possibly through your state's police regulations. Generally, should have been released through the criminal discovery process. Speak with the NC Civil Liberties Union.

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